1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to tape drives and more particularly relates to tape drive heads.
2. Description of the Related Art
Magnetic tape is often used to cost-effectively store large amounts of data. Magnetic tape is referred to herein as tape. The tape may comprise a magnetic coating on a thin plastic strip. A write element may generate a magnetic field that selectively polarizes the magnetic coating to encode data on the tape. A read element may detect the various polarized areas on the tape. This information may be decoded to recover the data.
The write element and read element may be incorporated in head. The tape may be transported across the head to allow the write element to write data to the tape. In addition the tape may be transported across the head to allow the read element to read data from the tape.
A tape may be organized with a plurality of data bands disposed longitudinally along the tape. Each data band may comprise a plurality of data tracks disposed longitudinally within the data band. The head may be positioned relative to the tape to allow the head to write data to and/or read data from a specified set of tracks within a data band. The head must follow a data track to within tolerances specified by Track Mis-Registration (TMR) requirements.
There is a need to increase the track data density of tape in order to store more data on each tape and to also increase the data rate of the recorded information. For example, tape is often used to backup data storage systems. As a storage capacity of data storage systems increases, there is a corresponding need for both increased data storage capacity and data rate by tape. Also there are significant numbers of magnetic tapes storing important data that were written using legacy data formats, so there is significant market pressure to preserve the customer's investment in tape by being able read and write older format media as well as a new format in the same read/write tape device. In addition, increasing track data density makes it more difficult for a head to meet TMR requirements.